


All My Friends

by misspotatoland



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Friendship, I'm Bad At Tagging, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24186970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misspotatoland/pseuds/misspotatoland
Summary: Does she even have friends?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	All My Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Set during and after Ice Fantasia 2018. Before we start, this is NOT a ship fanfic.

_Ice Fantasia 2018_

Of course she knew how to make friends. She had lots of friends. But they were all Russian or spoke Russian well. That's why Alina Zagitova often appeared as a shy person. It was true that she wasn't an extrovert like Evgenia but she always had someone to talk to.

Until it came to ice shows. That's when Evgenia would start chatting with her foreign friends that she didn't see everyday like her. She never really "abandoned" her but everytime Evgenia would talk to her friends, she felt like a third wheel. Mostly because her English wasn't great and she couldn't include herself into a conversation.

And the same thing was happening today on a practice for a Korean show Ice Fantasia 2018. Evgenia kept Alina company most of the time but she quickly got carried away when Gabby started talking to her. Or when anyone who started talking to her. She almost felt lonely. There weren't a lot of Russian speaking skaters so she had to cope with it. However, Evgenia had noticed that Alina wore a somewhat sad expression on her face so she glided towards her.

"What's wrong, Alinochka?" Evgenia asked concerned for her younger team mate. Even if the media tried to show them as rivals, they were both friends that cared about each other.

"It's nothing, Zhenya" Alina tried to cover the lie on her tongue.

"I know you for a long time, Alina. I know you're lying" Evgenia said but Alina remained silent.

"You can tell me everything, you know. We're friends" 

"I just feel a bit lonely. I always feel like a third wheel when I see you talking to Gabby and I can't talk to anyone else. I mean it's not like you need to talk to me all the time but my English sucks and we both know it" Alina admited and she realised how silly it sounds.

"Alina, you don't need to worry so much. My English wasn't good when I turned senior either. You just need practice. But you can talk to Aljona or Misha if you like since they both speak Russian" Evgenia comforted Alina and patted her shoulder.

"I already tried to talk to Aljona but we don't have much to talk about. She's like 18 years older than me, remember? And Misha is a lot older too."

"Hmmm, then you could try talking to Vincent or Jun. They both speak English and are very close to your age." 

"What about the part where my English sucks?" Alina remarked but Evgenia laughed at her question.

"I'm sure your English is good enough for a small conversation. Don't doubt in yourself" Evgenia said and went back to Gabby, leaving Alina all alone. 

She knew both Vincent Zhou and Junhwan Cha. They were both competing on a junior level with her and moved to seniors this year, like her. But she never had a conversation with any of them. There were only short congratulations after competitions. It's not like she didn't want to make friends but it always felt awkward when she had to talk in English. She would always mess up the words and would end up with a shattered sentence.

First she searched for Vincent. He was the World Junior Champion in 2017, same year when she was crowned for the same title. He appeared as a fun person to be around. However, for his first year in seniors, he is doing quite well in getting new friends. She saw Vincent talking and joking around with Boyang. She almost laughed at their shenanigans.

Okay, so she probably shouldn't bother them. She started to look for Jun. She first saw him at JGPF in 2016. During the gala practice he was mostly alone, only talking to Yuzuru or Javier because he didn't know anyone else while she luckily had her Russian team mates to spend time with. He reminded her of herself. Alone with no one to talk to.

She almost didn't want to bother him because she saw that he was practicing his spins but she decided to take a risk.

"Jun?" 

He just finished a sit spin and turned around to face the person calling him.

"Yes? Oh, Alina, is everything okay?" he asked with a concerned voice.

"Yes, everything is okay... I just wanted to talk..." she muttered with a heavily accented English.

"About the show? Do you want to repeat the choreography for the opening?"

"No... I wanted to talk... like friends" she said looking at the ground.

"Oh, then why didn't you say it? Umm, what do you want to talk about?" 

Alina was slightly startled when she heard his response. He always looked shy when he was in public but he was apparently open to talk to anyone. He was looking for a friend as well.

"I don't know. What music do you listen to?" she felt like dying. 'Why can't I have a normal coversation like I do with my Russian friends?' she asked herself.

"During training I listen to my program music but I like pop musics too... I mean songs, pop songs" he corrected himself, earning a giggle from Alina. 

"I listen to Russian songs. And sometimes pop" she replied.

"What is your favorite pop song?" Jun asked.

"I don't really have one. Do you?"

"I like songs from Shawn Mendes. My friend showed me his music and I liked it"

And that's how the conversation continued. Evgenia was proud of Alina finally getting out of her comfort zone and being able to talk to someone in English. Alina was also happy that she found someone who she can talk with. Jun became one of her first international friends. However, she still prefered to stay with Evgenia when she had a chance. He was almost like a back up plan for her in case Evgenia would start talking to others. But she enjoyed his company. He was a nice and positive person. She didn't mind it when he asked her to teach him how to do 3lutz-3loop combo. When he first tried to do it, he underrotated his loop which caused him too fall on the ice with a loud groan.

"Try to do 3lutz-3toe-3loop first" she said, skating towards the young Korean.

After a few tries he finally did it and by the end of the day, he had succeeded in landing a beautiful 3lutz-3loop combo.

"Did you see it?" Jun asked as he skated towards Alina.

"Yes, it was great!" she exclaimed while giving a high five to him.

But as every show comes to an end, so did this one. The next morning after the final show all athletes gathered to say their goodbyes. There were also some tears from some skaters since they wouldn't be able to see each other for a long time. Evgenia and Alina were the last ones to stay and say goodbye to Jun.

"The show was fantastic, I really had fun" said Evgenia while hugging Jun.

"I'm happy you had fun. You guys are both welcome next year too" he replied.

"We'll see about that" Evgenia joked before she headed towards her car.

"See you one day?" Alina started, because she didn't really know when would be the next time they would see each other again. He laughed at her goodbye before enveloping her in a hug.

"Maybe we will see each other during Grand Prix series" he said.

"Maybe."

Their hug ended quickly and before she knew it, Alina found herself back at home in Russia.   
‐---------------------------------------------------------------------  
 _A few days before Evgenia's announcement_

Soon after the Korean show Alina received a call from a familiar person. It was Evgenia. She thought it was strange since they saw each other almost every day but she still answered.

"Hey, Alina" Evgenia said, trying to maintain a normal tone.

"Hey, Zhenya. What's up?" 

"Before I say anything, promise you will listen to me until the end, okay?"

Alina's face went from happy to confused in a second. There was something wrong, she could feel it.

"Alina, I care about you more than I know, so this will be hard for you and me. After Olympics I started thinking about my path as a figure skater and realised that there's something missing. I needed something but I didn't know what. I felt so lost. Slowly I became to realise what I need. I need a change. When we came to Korea I scheduled an appointment with Brian Orser. We talked about everything connected to skating. I asked him about my chances of coming to Canada to train there. He said that I could come. This will be very shocking for you but if we both want to improve and work fairly, this had to be done. I'm going to train with Brian Orser now. I'm....leaving Eteri."

Alina felt like she got stabbed in the back with a knife. She couldn't believe it. Evgenia was her inspiration and now she was leaving? For a good minute there was silence from both sides, both unable to say anything.

"Alina, are you there?" Evgenia broke the silence, hoping she could hear younger girl's voice.

But it never came. Alina hung up on her. She had nothing to say. She felt like it was an eternity before she regained her senses and started crying. They were supposed to be friends, how could she leave? And most importantly, why didn't she tell her sooner?

The girl spent hours crying in her bed. She turned off her phone. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Even if Eteri or Daniil would call her, she wouldn't care. She wanted to be alone and let her emotions out. 

A few days later she was back on the ice, training and trying to brush off her thoughts. However that day Evgenia came to the rink with flowers. She was searching for Eteri. But she wasn't there. However, she spotted Alina while she was untieing her skates and tried to talk to her.

"Alina, please let me explain-" Evgenia tried but failed because Alina cut her off.

"Don't. It's okay, Evgenia. If you wanted to keep me in juniors, you should say sooner" was all Alina said before running away.

Evgenia knew what Eteri did, so she kept on calling out to her but it was useless. She left the flowers on a bench, next to the rink and left.

It was that night that Alina finally realised everything. During Ice Fantasia, Evgenia and Gabby hung around a lot. She knew they were friends but they were together all the time. She also couldn't miss the way she was acting like an older sister to Jun and goofing around with him as well. Or even when all three of them hung out and she was alone. It finally clicked in her mind. Jun and Gabby both trained with Brian Orser. She probably told them about her move that's why they were together all the time. They both knew. What hurt her most was that Jun, who was supposed to be her friend, knew about Evgenia's move. She thought she could trust him but even he didn't tell her. She felt betrayed. Her emotions caught up with her once again and she cried for what felt like a hundredth time in the week.

And that day she realised that she shouldn't trust anyone. Everyone betrayed her. She never had friends. 

When media started asking her about Evgenia, her answers were short as she didn't want to talk about it. When they asked her about friends, she didn't have an answer because she didn't know if she had them. And when other skaters wished her happy birthday, she only replied with short thanks. She couldn't get attached to anyone.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
 _GP Helsinki 2018_

Jun had just ended his practice when he headed out of the rink. He still felt quite fatigued from his cold. The chilly temperatures in the building weren't helping either so he zipped up his jacket as high as he could. 

As he was walking in the hallway, he saw a familiar figure coming towards his direction. He took a closer look and realised it was Alina. She changed, he had figured. She was taller and her make up looked a lot more serious. She was accompanied with one of her coaches.

He pulled his mask down and waved at her.

"Hi, Alina" he said, smiling.

The girl, however, didn't even look at him. She passed by as if he would be a stranger. After all she couldn't trust him. She didn't have friends.

**Author's Note:**

> As you may have read before, this is not a ship fanfic. It's purely a Jun/Alina friendship appreciaton. Why? I started looking back at Ice Fantasia 2018 and noticed a lot of photos and videos of friendly Alina and Jun interactions. However, after that there wasn't really any photos of them anymore even if they were competing at some competitions together😕 So this is how I got my inspiration. This work is NOT being mean to any of mentioned skaters. Thanks for reading and I really hope you liked it!
> 
> Bye bye
> 
> misspotatoland <3


End file.
